As smoke hangs over the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, it's important to understand its source. Some of this understanding will require us to reassess the history of police militarization in the United States. This will mean acknowledging its origins in the aftermath of the Watts Riots (1965) and the birth of the SWAT team shortly thereafter. It will mean noting the conservative reaction to the Warren Court's civil libertarian protections in the 1950s and 60s to President Nixon's launching of the drug war at the end of that same tumultuous decade. It will mean harping on President Reagan's wholehearted embrace of racial policing and mass incarceration in the 1980s. It will mean interrogating the devastating effects of the 1208 Program (1990), which became the 1033 Program (1996), both of which auth…

An extensive analysis of economic conditions and government policy reveals that the need for significant systemic change is now a mathematical fact. Corruption, greed and economic inequality have reached a peak tipping point. Due to the consolidation of wealth, the majority of the population cannot generate enough income to keep up with the cost of living. In the present economy, under current government policy, 70% of the population is now sentenced to an impoverished existence.

Let’s take an in-depth look at the evidence.

I: The Ultra-Rich .01%

To see how corrupt the United States government has become, just follow the money. According to the most recent Federal Reserve Flow of Funds report, US households currently have an all-time high $82 trillion in overall wealth. If that wea…

[Its vast holdings in the fossil fuel and arms industries subvert the foundation’s battle against disease and poverty. "The Gates Foundation boasts about its grants to help poor farmers adapt to droughts and floods caused by global warming. Yet according to the foundation's most recent tax filing and recent SEC filings, it holds more than $1.2 billion in a rogues' gallery of corporate actors, including BP, Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil, whose environmental despoliation promotes the climate change that is destroying those farmers' livelihoods." *RON*]By Charles Piller, The Nation, 22 August 2014

Soon after Susan Desmond-Hellmann became chancellor of the University of California San Francisco medical center campus, she faced an acute personal embarrassment. Financial disclosures revealed that she and her husband, both physicians, owned a sizable chunk of stock in Altria Corporation, a top cigarette maker. The chancellor…

[In a significant change in tone on the eurozone’s fiscal rules, Mr Draghi said countries should be encouraged to spend more within existing EU regulations that limit budget deficits to 3 per cent of gross domestic product... The ECB president endorsed a proposal from Jean-Claude Juncker, European Commission president, for a €300bn investment programme to boost growth... “I am confident that the package of measures we announced in June will indeed provide the intended boost to demand and we stand ready to adjust our policy stance further,” Mr Draghi said. See also: French Economy Minister Says Austerity Measures Sapping Growth. *RON*]

Click here to view the original article.[Yes these are the guys who, clearly, should be left alone in charge of the investigation into the missing Aboriginal women across Canada. Plainly, no independent inquiry is needed, right, Mister Harper? *RON*]By Tamsyn Burgmann, The Canadian Press / Huffington Post, 22 August 2014

VANCOUVER - Harassment and bullying hasn't been stamped out inside the RCMP workplace despite high-level assurances that action would be taken, says a Liberal MP who has met with dozens of Mounties.

MP Judy Sgro wants a judicial inquiry into "horrible and graphic" conduct within the country's national police force after hearing a slew of allegations during a series of private forums across the country.

"Every one of those sessions was emotionally draining and very sad," Sgro told those who attended a Liberal party-hosted breakfast in Vancouver on Friday.

"It continued to diminish the image we all have, and that we want to have, of the RCMP…

Click here to view the original article.[In case you thought I was exaggerating in my comment to yesterday's story on Canada's military deployment in the arctic. *RON*]By Steve Rennie, The Canadian Press / Huffington Post, 22 August 2014

FORT SMITH, N.W.T. - Russia's growing military presence in the Arctic is a concern and Canada should not get complacent about it, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Friday during the second leg of his annual northern tour.

Harper, who was in the Northwest Territories town of Fort Smith to announce initiatives to promote fresh food production in the region, said Russia has not made the same sort of aggressive military incursions in the Arctic as it has in Eastern Europe.

But the prime minister gave a "cautious yes" when asked if he was concerned about the militarization of the Arctic.

"Cautious in the following sense: that we haven't seen, obviously, the kind of aggressive moves in the Arctic that we have seen in eastern Euro…

Click here to view the original article.[There can be no better evidence of the dangerous incompetence of the BC and Canadian governments than that foreign governments don't trust them to do their jobs properly. *RON*]By James Keller, The Canadian Press / Huffington Post, 22 August 2014

VANCOUVER - The state of Alaska has taken the rare step of asking the Canadian government for greater involvement in the approval and regulation of a controversial mine in northwestern British Columbia amid growing concern that the project could threaten American rivers and fish.

Alaska's Department of Natural Resources outlined its request in a letter this week to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, which has been reviewing the proposed KSM gold and copper mine, owned by Seabridge Gold Inc. (TSX:SEA). The project has already been approved by B.C.

"The state of Alaska has important obligations to our citizens relating to the protection of fish, wildlife, waters and lands that we hol…

July 29 (Bloomberg) -- Bloomberg’s Phil Mattingly reports on President Barack Obama’s plan for executive action to give millions of immigrants work permits to stay in the United States. He speaks on “Bloomberg Surveillance.” After meeting with a "bevy" of big-business groups, President Barack Obama is reportedly considering granting them up to 800,000 additional guest-worker visas via executive actions.

According to the Associated Press, "one of the more popular requests among business and family groups is a change in the way green cards are counted," which would "essentially free up some 800,000 additional visas the first year." In addition, "other requests have included removing the requirement that some spouses of U.S. citizens retur…